Atlanta Braves

It's a wonder seeing a starting pitcher winless this far into the season. After 13 or 14 starts, one would expect several wins, losses, and no decisions from them. When you're paying a guy over $7 million to pitch for your team, you expect a few wins, especially if your team's in first place.

The Baltimore Orioles feel this way about Kevin Millwood, certainly. He has 14 appearances, a 5.16 ERA, an 0-8 record, and leads the American League in home runs and hits allowed. It could be that his career is nearing his end.

It sounds funny, doesn't it?

Chase Utley is being challenged for the starting job at second base for this year’s National League All-Star team.

Up until this year, that was a preposterous thought, but seemingly out of the woodwork.

All indicators seem to be pointing toward Chipper Jones retiring at the end of the 2010 season, barring some sort of miracle turnaround at the plate.

I'm hoping that he'll right the ship and somehow manage to salvage the season, but I just don't see it happening. Though, this is one case where I hope I'm wrong.

While nothing is written is stone just yet, there is a pretty good chance that the Atlanta Braves will find themselves sans-Chipper Jones when the team reports to Spring Training in 2011.

(Oh, and yeah, I know that the Braves are a first place team with a lot going right for them right now.)

It's been a while since Atlanta Braves fans have had much to cheer about. Long gone are the days of Maddox, Glavine, and Smoltz, the Jones boys broke up after 2007, the streak of 14 consecutive NL East Championships ended five seasons ago, and the 1995 World Series is but a distant memory.

We all knew that their reign atop the NL East couldn’t last forever.

As Ken Rosenthal reports , the Braves are stocked deep in pitching, which is no surprise to any Braves follower.

What he mentions in the article that caught my eye was that he sees the Braves’ left-handed side of the bullpen as potentially the best in the game.

"The left side of the 'pen—Eric O'Flaherty, Jonny Venters, Billy Wagner—might be the best in the game," said Rosenthal.

When Frank Wren replaced John Schuerholz as General Manager a couple of years ago, Braves’ fans were undoubtedly skeptical that he could come in and make such a difference. I think now that even the skeptics can be silenced by the performance of Frank Wren in building a ballclub that can be defined by words like "deep," "versatile," and "talented."

Tonight showed just how those words ring true about the 2010 Atlanta Braves.

Coming into the 2010 season, the Braves had two players who hoped to enter the Comeback Player of the Year race.

Tim Hudson missed the majority of the 2009 season after Tommy John surgery, and many wondered whether the Braves would resign him, as doing so would mean trading either Derek Lowe or Javier Vazquez.

In his late-season appearances, Hudson convinced the Braves that he was worth re-signing, and the team eventually traded away Vazquez (after failing to trade Lowe) in order to stay within the budget.

Although the MLB Draft is still going on (rounds 31-50 are tomorrow) I decided to get the draft recap done as players picked lower than 30^th rarely end up signing. If the Braves add anyone who I could see making an impact, I will be sure to add them to the list.

First, here is a quick breakdown of what the Braves drafted, going by their listing on MLB.com.

Pitchers: 12

Catchers: 3

Corner Infield: 4

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I have been at a trade show for work in Orlando, FL. Bill Simmons thought that Orlando was the cougar capital of the U.S. and I would have to agree with him on that one. This city is littered with them.

If you are ever in Orlando, I recommend Texas de Brazil. It’s a Brazilian steakhouse and they just keep coming with meat after meat after meat. The bacon wrapped filet mignon was especially fantastic.